At 10:44 Tuesday morning, emergency units responded to the Hatfield Township Police Department shooting range on the 300 block of County Line Road for an injury caused by the accidental discharge of a firearm.

According to Hatfield Police, Sgt. Stephen Gillen of the Upper Gwynedd Township Police Department, was conducting annual firearms training at the range when a round fired into his left foot while he was removing the weapon from his holster.

Upper Gwynedd Police Chief David Duffy confirmed that the weapon was a .40 caliber handgun.

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Gillen, a 23-year veteran police officer, was under the supervision of two certified range instructors at the time, Hatfield Police said.

There were also three officers present for the firearms training, Duffy said.

Duffy reported that Gillen is expected to be released from the hospital later today.

Upper Gwynedd Police are handling the investigation.

Describing police work as a “dangerous” job, Duffy said that although it’s rare, accidents can occur even in a controlled environment such as a police range. “We take this seriously. We will look into this and see if we can prevent anything like this from happening again,” he said.